Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The Trail Widens

I thought I'd share some research work I've been doing in preparation for publishing the story of Charles & Salome Ruch, an immigrant couple on my husband's side. Unless you follow my personal blog, MyGenealogyPondering, you probably aren't aware of my journey with this couple this past year.

I determined early on that I'd begin the story with Charles & Salome and not delve into the family left in France - Bouxwiller, Bas-Rhin, Alsace to be precise. However, recent discoveries have changed my plan slightly. You see the archives in France have posted on-line and free French Civil Records. Among these records are ten-year tables (a list of births, marriages and deaths for each village in a ten-year period beginning in the 1700s). I had no previous knowledge of these tables.

In the past, I had viewed various films from the LDS of some civil records and copied pertinent to my core families; however, now these - at least an index of these - are posted to the pilot website. (Browse, Europe, France). Since I originally viewed the films, I've learned much more about the families.

Long story short - between the LDS indices and the ten-year tables I've been able to document many familial relationships. Since I have new and more information, I've decided to included in my publication descendants charts for the oldest progenitors I have recorded. I'll let future family historians delve deeper.

Bottom line - never give up. More and more information is coming on-line to help us in our research.

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